Patient transport tables have become standard equipment for most hospitals. Such patient transport tables are mounted on wheels and are used to transport patients from their individual rooms to operating rooms, intensive care units, or another rooms or areas of the hospital. Because of their frequent use, patient transport tables are usually kept on almost every floor of a hospital, and on occasions, transport table traffic jams occur when numerous tables are left in hospital hallways after a patient is removed from the table.
Patient transport tables are typically in use less than twenty (20%) percent of the time and must be stored for the remaining period of time. Usually, the hallways and storage areas of a hospital can easily accomodate one or two patient transport tables. A problem arises, however, when an excessive number of transport tables are left on a particular floor or in a particular storage area. For example, transport tables may accumulate near the operating room during a period of frequent operations. Hospital personnel may have more pressing matters to command their attention than the job of removing transport tables. Thus, a need has arisen for a patient transport table that is easily and efficiently stored with other patient transport tables.
The present invention solves this problem by providing a nestable patient transport table. When numerous patient transport tables accumulate in a hospital hallway, the transport tables of the present invention may be adjusted into the nesting position, and two or more tables may then be nested together in a space-saving configuration. For example, using patient transport tables of the present invention, approximately six (6) tables may be nested together in the space occupied by two (2) conventional tables. In this manner, although numerous tables are present in the hallway, the space needed to store them is reduced by nesting them together.